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Alternators Ravage and Rumble out at US Wal*Mart stores?

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Nevermore at 2007-03-24 6:21 pm

For those of you who have long since given up on the Alternators line, there are two more toys coming your way soon. Hasbro have displayed Rumble (actually "Decepticon Rumble"), a Honda Civic Si with a fake tape chest and piledriver arms in robot mode, and Ravage (no "Battle Ravage" this time), a Jaguar XK that transforms into a robotic panther rather than a humanoid robot with a panther head, at last year's BotCon, and the toys were confirmed to be the last releases for the Alternators line before the movie.

However, since then, several online retailers have taken down preorders for the Ravage/Rumble wave, and subsequently, while stolen test shots of both toys popped up in the usual places, packaged samples were not to be seen anywhere. Surprisingly, Ravage ultimately came out in the UK, followed by several other European countries such as Italy and even Germany (!), the latter of which is hardly a Mekka for otherwise hard to find Transformers toys.

Around the same time, Ravage also officially came out in Hong Kong, albeit again in European packaging sporting twelve languages. A few weeks ago, he was finally followed by Rumble, this time in US packaging.

Last week, Kickback from TFW2005 broke the news that both Rumble and Ravage would finally be shipped to US stores, but they would be exclusive to Wal*Mart stores (presumably because none of the other chains were interested in the line any longer).

Today, the first Ravages in US packaging have popped up on eBay. The US-based seller in question currently has multiples of both toys in stock, which would imply that he has received at least three cases of the Ravage/Rumble wave.

UPDATE: Apparently the seller just confirmed that he picked them up at his local Wal*Mart store, so it would seem the two of them are out right now. So, remember to report your own sightings of Alternators Ravage (Jaguar, nor Corvette) here, and sightings of Rumble here!

Sorry, I'm one of the many that has lost intrest in Alternators. If they release a Megatron, I'll absolutly get it. But, I'm not intersted in any other posible characters in this line.

It's too bad really. They're great toys for collectors. They've got difficult transformation, great posablity, and incredible alt mode detail. It's also very cool that for the first time since g2 we're getting real cars, not just things that kind of resemble cars we know.

I'm not really sure what it would've taken to make this line fly. But when 3 of the first 5 toys I saw on the shelf were different paint schemes on a Subaru WRX, I was turned off right away. I thought with the Optimus Prime maybe they had figured it out. It was too little, too late.

Uk finally got some Transformers love!A shame it was at double the cost you'll get it but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth (Til I remember that we still lack large swathes of Cybertron anyway)

Megatron would have been the Cadillac XLR found in store listings. But Hasbro said at BotCon that the decision to discontinue the line for the time being came before they even started working on Megatron. If they decide to pick up Alternators after the movie (which is unlikely), Megatron would presumably be one of their priorities.

I wouldn't hold my breath Side Swipe. It would probably take a MASSIVE uprising on the vairous boards and mail to Hasbro directly to bring Alternators back. Even then, it would likely be used as a gap filler in the empty space between "Heros" and whatever follows it. Just like the way Classics is being used to fill the void between Cybertron and The Movie.

Even though my collecting has gone way down (aside from a couple Classics here and there), I am really sad to see Alternators go. What was good about them was that they were realistic vehicles that had good tranformations, good possability, and for the most part, were G1 inpired (or atleast to me, that's good). Unfortunatly, they fell victim to the repaint syndrome, with new characters being released as simple repaints, or repaints and slight retools (none of which I bought, except for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe). I think that $20 per figure helped discourage buying (although I think the $20 was worth it). And then there was the wait for new figures, since they took so long to arrive, or were just so hard to find (Alternators Tracks, anyone???).I think that some of the figures, even the different modes were too similar though, like the Meister (Jazz) and Smokescreen molds, having very simlar transformation. But there was a lack of variety. They were all cars. And of course, they couldn't do any combiners, since the companies the various cars we from didn't want their car to been seen combining with something else.

The much-complained about "repaint syndrome" is hard to avoid. The most expensive part in producing a toy is the steel mold, so reusing it for producing another toy in different colors is helping to bring back in the costs.

In the case of Alternators, you have to add the license fees. It's also cheaper to release two toys based on the same license than having to acquire an additional license for a second toy.

And as long as the redecos are good (Dead End, Sunstreaker from Side Swipe, Silverstreak from Smokescreen etc.), it's okay as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, half-hearted repaints like Rollbar or BTA Alert aren't really much to write home about.

At Botcon last year Hasbro got booed when they anounced that the Alt. line was going to be cancelled, then they anounced that it might come back after the movie toys are done. Let's hope so for out sakes!

and as for repaints, look at the G1 line, hell even before that, the Diaclone's, the Kingdam series, even the Micronauts, They are all around, less molds, more $$ to make. Even Star Wars, look at the R2 units, and the 3PO's. And look at the GIJoe line. Repaints, they are all over the place. Without Repaints, we wouldn't have Skywarp, Thundercracker, Frenzy, Buzzsaw, Sunstorm, Hauler, to name a few.

Speedbuggy and Nevermore have hit the problem right on the head. If the repaints are good, we will buy them. But when their not, we buy whichever paint scheme is our favorte. In my case just slaping a light bar on the roof and making a car white isn't a good enough change to call it a police car. Especially when on something like the Acura RSX, no police force anywhere would use this car for squad duty.

Some repaints are okay. But there comes a point of getting carried away. They should repaint Ravage and call him Steeljaw. They could easily repaint Rumble and call him Frenzy. They could make all the Stunticons in the Alternators line being they're all cars, except for Motormaster. How about some new molds, Pontiac Trans Sport minivans of Ironhide and Ratchet. Or if minivans are too boring how about a Chevy Trailblazer.